Affinity Law Office Technology Blog

Huge external hard drive at low price

Best Buy has the Maxtor 320 GB external USB hard drive for only $139.99 after instant savings.  This is a 7200 rpm hard drive that works with USB 2.0 or 1.1 connections.  Because it is a full-sized external hard drive (3.5 inch form factor), it requires an external power adapter (included).  While not especially portable, it is very roomy.  This is the type of drive you'd want if you need to store large image, video, or music files.  It would be ideal to connect to a Windows Media Center Edition computer for extra storage of recorded television shows.       

Treo 650 software update for Verizon Wireless customers

If you are one of the many thousands of lawyers depending on a Verizon Wireless Treo 650 for wireless telephone, email, and other functions, there is an important software update available here.   The update has the following enhancements:

• Enhanced memory handling for opening larger web pages
• Optimized Bluetooth performance and added support for additional headsets and carkits
• Adds Dial Preferences screen to Phone Application
• Enhancement to Date/Time preference panel to address daylight savings time and network time issues
• Replaces Wireless Sync application with Wireless Sync over-the-air provisioning client
• Adds support for certain cradle-based accessories, including speaker docks
• Integrates the Treo 650 E911 Updater to improve the ability of emergency response personnel to locate users who dial 911 from the Treo 650 smartphone

  Note: Those who use the VersaMail application as the default email application will need to download and install the version of the application here after installing this Treo 650 update.

It is critical to follow the updated instructions carefully.  And make sure you have a Verizon Wireless Treo 650 before you apply the update.  It will not work with Treo 650s from other carriers and could disable your device. 

Law office technology bargains, October 22-28

This is the cheapest portable hard drive deal I've seen.  At Staples you can buy the I/O Magic 40 GB portable USB hard drive for only $29.98 after instant savings and a Staples Easy Rebate.  40 GB is not large by external hard drive standards, but this is a small portable drive that requires no external power supply.  It gets it power from the USB cable connection to your computer.  Also, 40 GB is enough to back up all of the documents and data for solos and many small law firms.  Buy two and rotate them off-site daily.

Staples also has a handy three-pack of PNY 1 GB USB flash drives for $49.98.  There is no longer any excuse to use hopelessly unreliable floppy disks. 

If you need a large amount of hard drive storage and portability is not a key concern, Office Depot has the Western Digital 250 GB My Book external USB hard drive for $99.99 after a $70 mail-in rebate.

For the ultimate law office monitor that may eliminate the need for multiple monitors, Circuit City has the Samsung 22 inch widescreen LCD for $100 off at $399.99.  This display is large enough and wide enough to easily display two documents side-by-side.  Circuit City also has an entry in the large backup/storage drive competition with the Seagate external 250 GB external hard drive for only $99.99 after a $60 mail-in rebate.       

Good news and bad news for new Documents-To-Go version 9

DataViz announced the latest version of its Documents-To-Go software.  Version 9 preserves more of the complex formatting of MS Office documents that are opened and edited on a PDA or smart phone.  This should be a big help for those use their Treo smart phone or Palm PDA to edit legal documents with formatting such as footnotes, headers, footers, etc.  The downside for those who still use non-Microsoft word processing software such as WordPerfect is that Version 9 no longer supports formats other than those used by MS Office.  Existing Documents-To-Go users can upgrade to Version 9 for about $30.     

New Treo 680 announced by Palm

Palm announced its latest Treo smart phone.  It is the Treo 680, which sports a smaller and slimmer form factor than the Treo 600, 650 and 700 series smart phones.  It is the first Palm Treo to have an internal antenna, eliminating the antenna nub on the top left that is characteristic of the other Palm Treo smart phones.

The Treo 680 is a GSM phone which will run on the Cingular and T-Mobile networks.  Recent Treo releases have been targeted at CDMA networks like those of Sprint and Verizon Wireless. 

According to information at www.mytreo.net, the Treo 680 has the following features:

• Added memory: The Treo 680 smartphone includes 64MB of user-available storage, nearly three times the memory of the original Treo 650 smartphone. Customers can add up to 2GB of storage with expansion cards for those large music or video files (sold separately);
• Enhanced email and messaging: Exchange ActiveSync will now synchronize not only calendar and email, but contacts as well; SMS and MMS capabilities have been improved for a better user experience;
• Improved web browser: The Blazer 4.5 browser is superfast due to its smarter caching rules and includes alternate modes for viewing web pages optimized for the device or as a regular web page;
• Enhanced multimedia: Customers can use the Treo 680 smartphone to stream music, play MP3s and manage and share photo albums;
• Built-in dial-up networking (DUN) capabilities: Customers can use the new smartphone as a wireless modem via Bluetooth(R) wireless technology to connect to a compatible Bluetooth enabled laptop;
• Documents To Go: Customers can view, edit and share Microsoft Word and Excel documents on their Treo 680 smartphones in addition to viewing full-featured Adobe PDF files and Microsoft PowerPoint presentations; and
• Bluetooth 1.2: Customers can connect wirelessly to other Bluetooth enabled devices. The Treo 680 has improved car-kit and headset support, and support for multiple simultaneous The simultaneous Bluetooth connections.Bluetooth connections.